She turned around and looked at the woman in the sundress. "Olenna?"
"Come with me," Olenna said, leading her to her room.
Though a bit puzzled, Quinn followed anyway.
Once inside, Olenna immediately locked the door behind them, her eyes returning to Quinn's bandaged hand and her thin brow knitted together. "What happened to your hand? And... why are you home so early? Your classes don't end until 3 PM, do they?"
Quinn bit her lip, debating who would be better to report what Amy did today to. In the end, she decided to spill the beans to Olenna.
"Amy hit me."
Olenna blinked, her expression slipping from confusion to disbelief. "Amy did?" Her voice was laced with doubt. "She wouldn't do something like that, would she? What did you do to upset her so badly?"
Quinn's lip trembled, her voice rising with hurt. "What do you mean by what I did to get hit this badly?!"
"Certainly, she wouldn't hit you for nothing, would she?" Olenna tilted her head, repeating her earlier words.
Quinn snapped, gritting her teeth hard. "Yes, she would. And she did."
Olenna brushed strands of blonde hair from her face and sighed, then slowly approached Quinn, patting her shoulders gently. "It's okay, Quinn. Calm down and tell me what happened, okay?"
Even though Quinn didn't feel like explaining herself again, the injustice she felt couldn't be bottled up. Coupled with the gentle, soothing voice of the only mother figure in her life, she took a deep breath and properly explained what had happened earlier.
"How did she do? Did she perform that badly?" Olenna asked with a hint of concern. Her expression shifted immediately when she heard that Amy had lost control of her emotions after seeing Quinn's results and slapped her arm away with such force that it led her to the school hospital.
Quinn bit her lip, her hurt expression making Olenna catch herself. Olenna quickly adjusted her face into a smile and cupped Quinn's cheek in her hands, caressing her face gently. "It's okay. I will teach her a lesson properly once she returns home. Okay?"
Although that was exactly what Quinn wanted, she couldn't shake the feeling that Olenna was being perfunctory. And the anger she felt didn't even subside—in fact, it only grew, leaving her with a tight, painful feeling in her chest.
"All right." She forced a nod and stood up, walking to the door.
Before she could twist the knob, Olenna's voice stopped her. "Also... Quinn."
"Yes?" Quinn turned around, her expression blank.
"Don't tell your dad about it, okay?"
"Why?" Quinn frowned slightly, her gaze suspicious.
Olenna stood up from the bed and approached, her smile gentle. "You don't want the relationship between you and Amy to be strained, do you? You know she probably did worse than she expected in her midterm results. That's why she overreacted, and we'll settle this by making her apologize. But if Miller gets involved, he might cut off her allowance or, worse, punish her harshly. You don't want that to happen, do you?"
Seeing Quinn remain silent, not uttering a single word, Olenna's smile faded, and she whispered in a quieter voice. "Do you remember what we always say: United we stand, divided we fall. One stick is easier to break than two bound together. Internal strife will make us fall easily."
A flicker of emotion crossed Quinn's face, her nails digging into her palms.
She was tired of being "united" all this time when all she received was the opposite from the other party!
She had always tolerated Amy, even when she didn't want to, all for the sake of this united-and-stick nonsense.
Why should she be the one trying so desperately to hold everything together?!
It was too hard!
But the motto had been drilled into her mind so deeply that even when she wanted to protest, she couldn't. Because she could vividly remember what happened the last time she went against that motto.
It was brutal.
And since then, she had become a believer in that motto.
"You will listen to me, won't you?" Olenna continued softly, her tone almost pleading, but at the same time, leaving no room for argument. "Moreover..." Olenna's smile vanished. "I won't hold you accountable for coming home before class ended, regardless of what happened. You know I always told you that unless the school calls either me or your dad to pick you up because you've fainted, you shouldn't be home early. If word gets out, you know what the world will say, don't you? You remember, don't you?"
Quinn pursed her lips, slowly unclenching her hands as she took a deep breath.
In the end, she stiffly nodded.
"Good." A smile returned to Olenna's face, and she gently patted Quinn's shoulder. "I'll have the maid inform you when it's lunchtime."
Quinn said no more and walked out of the room.
"You're back?"